Edmond North cross country runner Zac Rutherford savors race to his first state championship

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA - Zac Rutherford took his time coming down the final stretch.

Even though, technically, he was still in the middle of the biggest race of his cross country career, the Edmond North senior wanted to take it all in before crossing the finish line at the Class 6A boys state meet. 

“I was thinking I did it,” Rutherford said. “I did it and no one else did it like how I did it.”

Despite not being in a particular hurry to finish the race, Rutherford still ran a 15:16 to earn his first state title. He was 17 seconds ahead of Mustang’s Noah Thayer.

Rutherford has come close in previous seasons, but in 2023, everything seemed to fall into place at the right time.

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“Getting third last year, I was happy with myself. I knew I could do better, so I went back to the drawing board,” Rutherford said. “I came back and ran 24 seconds faster than I did last season. Just personally, it was a dream come true.

"Like I said, since freshman year I've been hoping for this day, thinking about this day for three years, been manifesting it. Just happy that it happened.”

Rutherford headed into the state championship with a strategy that he had not been able to use for much of the year.

“It's probably the best race I'll have for a long time,” Rutherford said. “My goal this race was to just win the whole 5,000 meters and I think I performed pretty well to that.

"I had struggled very early in the season and to come back like this at the end, win it all senior year, it's all I could ask for.”

Rutherford’s early season struggles had more to do with adjusting to a new team strategy than anything else.

“I think what it was is our training. We really decided to peak for state this year,” Rutherford said. “Last season, we ran our best times in the middle of the season, so our coaches decided to push back our training a little bit and have us start doing the harder workouts toward the end of the season.

"Start upping the mileage and just have a really good solid bit of training, stay injury-free. That was the whole plan for this year.”

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By the time the postseason rolled around, Rutherford knew he was ready to win it all. He dominated the Owasso regional, taking first place by more than 20 seconds, which set him up perfectly for state.

“I knew I had the tools to win the race. Just whether or not I'll be able to do it and perform to the best of my abilities was the question," Rutherford said. “And as soon as the gun started, I knew I had the race in the bag.

"I knew I would be able to just press through. I feel good and I can't do this without any of these other people here around me.”

As soon as the race ended, it started to hit Rutherford that his high school cross country career was nearing an end. While he plans to compete in college at the University of Little Rock in Arkansas, those final 100 meters will be hard to beat.

“It's a dream come true. I've been wishing for this day since freshman year, three years ago,” Rutherford said. “I cried immediately after the race. Probably going to cry again later, but I had a really good time. These are the people I've been here with, all the friends I've made, all the races I've had, all the work that I've put into it.

"All of that just to come together and to finally finish it off with this big win, a big celebration. It means a lot to me as an individual. I'm really sentimental. So, I was just really happy to finally cap off my career like this.” 

-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK